80% of Russians Feel Country's Economic Decline, Says Poll

Some 82 percent of Russians can feel the
effects of the country's economic decline, the Kommersant newspaper reported Monday, citing a report by independent
pollster the Levada Center.

The number has risen from the 61
percent who felt the pinch back in the fall of 2014.

Almost one in five respondents (17
percent) have had problems with delayed wage packets, while 16
percent expected delays in the coming months.

Some 18 percent said that that they
relied on help from the state — a level not seen since
2008.

Many Russians also believe that
economic instability will be long-lived, with 25 percent of
respondents saying that they expected the crisis to “be very long.”
Another 21 percent said that they expected the economic decline to
last at least two years, while 17 percent estimated that it would
last a year and a half.

"This data is more relevant to the psycho-emotional state of
people than to the actual economic situation,” secretary of the
Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FITUR) Alexander
Shershukov said, Kommersant reported.

The Russian economy, hit by Western
sanctions and weak oil prices, contracted by 3.7 percent in 2015. The
country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell by 0.9 percent in the
first half of this year, while the economy contracted
across almost all sectors, a report by Moscow's Higher School of
Economics (HSE) revealed in August.